Emotions often run high, for various reasons, where the music of Richard Wagner is concerned. But in the Royal Albert Hall last night, as the mighty tetralogy The Ring of the Nibelung, given in its entirety for the first time at the Proms, drew to its sublime close, there was an excitement in the air that I have not witnessed in many decades of Prom going.

The performance of Wagner’s Ring, all fifteen hours of it spread over four nights, with its gigantic orchestra and its demanding vocal and instrumental parts, is always a special occasion. But this was different. It was the first time Daniel Barenboim, widely acknowledged as the greatest living Wagner interpreter, had conducted Wagner in London. And this time, because it was a semi-staging, with the massed ranks of the orchestra ranged onstage behind the singers instead of confined to an orchestra pit below stage, the audience was able to savour the richness and subtlety of these four remarkable scores as they unfolded.

Barenboim’s own orchestra, the Staatskapelle Berlin, one of the finest in the world, was thus subjected to the closest possible critical scrutiny and came through with flying colours. We heard exquisite blends of bass clarinet and cello, of horns and Wagner tubas (the latter notoriously difficult to play), of trumpet and cor anglais. And because Barenboim rightly insisted that they keep the volume down, they never once drowned the singers.

If the Staatskapelle and Barenboim were in many ways the stars of the show, this cycle also featured a high-calibre cast largely drawn from Barenboim’s recent performances in Berlin and Milan. Heading the bill was the Swedish soprano Nina Stemme, whose account of the Valkyrie Brünnhilde confirmed her as one of the leading Wagner sopranos in the world. Last night the tenor who sang Siegfried, Andreas Schager, was the one who took over a performance at short notice in Berlin when the scheduled tenor got the start time wrong. Schager had shown great promise then and proved himself once again last night, with a ringing tone, grateful on the ear, that was also shaped with musical intelligence.

Waltraud Meier, a seasoned Wagner mezzo, took the roles of Waltraute and Second Norn. All three of these singers received rapturous ovations, but the rest of the cast will also have gone away with the roar of the Proms audience in their ears. Time and again they were all called back to the stage by this hugely appreciative audience.

In an impromptu speech from the platform, Barenboim thanked his orchestra and his singers, but also us the audience: “what you went through with us, this is something I never dreamt of… the communion between musicians and public depends not only on us but also on you, and you have brought so much silence!” The audience had indeed been one of the most responsive and best behaved I can remember at the Proms. After the final chord had sounded, there was a rapt moment lasting many seconds before Barenboim lowered his arms and the thunderous ovation began.

In that speech Barenboim also made a point of thanking his concertmaster (leader), Wolf-Dieter Batzdorf, whose last performance it was with the orchestra after a career of forty years. Barenboim’s encomium was all the more poignant as he had delivered a furious reprimand to Batzdorf after the second act of Die Walküre on Tuesday night, in full view of the Promenaders. This, evidently, was Barenboim’s way of making amends. At the same time it acknowledged the very special bond that had been forged between performers and audience over the course of an extraordinary week.